A lecturer whose futuristic designs are the stuff of science fiction has found a ready market for his revolutionary runaround, the Microcab.

A lecturer whose futuristic designs are the stuff of science fiction has found a ready market for his revolutionary runaround, the Microcab.

Organisers of the Commonwealth Games, due to take place in Manchester this summer, have ordered 30 of the hydrogen-powered vehicles to ferry spectators to and from competitions.

The energy-efficient Microcab was designed by Coventry University's senior lecturer in design and digital media John Jostins, who also built Star Wars' famous R2D2 and has been involved in special effects for cult series Dr Who.

Mr Jostins, who is also director of London-based Greenheart Millennium Transport, was helped by students and staff in the university's school of engineering and on the school of art and design's transport design course.

The project has won a Smart award for innovation from the Department of Trade and Industry of #65,000, which will be used to further develop the vehicle.

A graduate in fine art from Coventry University, Mr Jostins's credits also include creating futuristic vehicles for TV series Cold Lazarus, by dramatist Dennis Potter.

Mr Jostins said: "I had spent all this time designing these futuristic, high-speed vehicles and yet I noticed that traffic in London was getting more congested and moving slower and slower.

"I started to give this more thought and I began sketching ideas in 1997. By 1998, I had come up with the design for a hydrogen-powered fuel cell car for the future."